This is a good spell to start fights at lower levels. Untalented and used against a foe with no speed boosting abilities at max range, you can cast 3 Lightning Bolts in the span of time it takes for a mob to reach you. You can even cast a shock just as the third Lightning Bolt finishes casting to max out damage against a pulled, incoming mob.

It is also more likely to use during combat because of its 2.5 second casting time as opposed to other classes' similar function spells and is fairly mana-efficient.

Patch 2.3.0 (13-Nov-2007): Cast time reduced to 2.5 (from 3.0 where applicable), mana costs reduced, benefit from spell damage have been modified to maintain the DPS of the the previous, longer casting time.